An institutional periphery in discussion. Rethinking the inner areas in Italy

Geographic peripheries in Italy are defined by the government in an institutional document as areas affected by increasing depopulation, high rates of demographic ageing, geographic marginality, and various degrees and forms of inequalities in the provision of services and infrastructure. These so-called ‘inner areas’ are identified based on the level of accessibility to three citizenship rights (mobility, education, and health) and characterized by nonuniform socio-economic and infrastructure conditions, a heterogeneity that raises questions about the criteria used for their definition. This paper therefore proposes an alternative approach to describe the features of marginality related to mobility, demographic, and socio-economic conditions in Italy, discussing the institutional classification of the inner areas. Based on the literature review, we select a set of indicators to identify different geographies of marginality. Combining them in a cluster analysis, we identify the most disadvantaged territories in terms of mobility, demographics, and economics, highlighting different forms of marginality that challenge territorial cohesion policies and address more selective and place-based measures.